I watched “The X-Files” in a Baltimore house I shared with eight people, at the end of days spent navigating the city’s shaky public transit system, alternating between feeling perfectly in place and wildly lost. That’s how I felt when I watch “The X-Files,” too: One moment I was perfectly attuned to Agents Mulder & Scully’s plan of attack; the next, I was baffled as the agents discovering a farm of clones or a UFO witness who also happens to be a serial killer. Confused? Intrigued? You are not alone. And the truth is out there.

If you’re new to “The X-Files,” Handlen’s Gateways to Geekery column will guide you. He outlines the premise of the show and suggests the best episodes to watch first:

“The concerns that lie at the heart of the show: the quest for meaning in a seemingly meaningless world, the ludicrous emptiness of conspiracy, the strange accumulations of detail that make up an individual life, and the personal connections we make that can’t save us from death, but might at least make the trip there not entirely miserable.”

Last week, I received a text from my friend Kirby: “Dana Scully is flawless: discuss.” Perfect timing: I’d just read this wonderful meandering essay by Marshall about the cliches of self-discovery in your twenties, who concludes that FBI Agent and “I’m a medical doctor!” Dana Scully is the role model for her 25th year of life.

The A.V. Club team discusses one of the creepiest episodes of “The X-Files,” in which Mulder & Scully encounter an incestuous, murderous family in small-town America. The writers discuss the scientific, cinematic and thematic implications of the episode.